Saturday, 24 March 2012

Heading South

The Welsh Highland in common with the FR and many other narrow gauge railways takes a wandering and rather indirect course through the landscape, so much so that at two points on the northbound journey from Porthmadog to Caernarfon you find yourself heading back to where you started.

The first of those locations is the S bend behind Beddgelert station, which is where Himself has now reached on the 'Hebogometer'.

We're breaking new ground here with a virgin baseboard.

As Himself writes: " It must be one of the most complicated boards on the layout, with the river, road and rail crossing all together plus getting the alignment right with the farm road and buildings in a compact area plus 3 river bridge abutments to make."

"I will not be able to progress the other half of the board until the 2 boards with the loop are built, then I will be able to set the track height towards Bron Hebog crossing."

As you can see in this picture below, this board is set at 90 degrees to the ones along the front of the layout.

It is also staggered in the way it is positioned next to the end board with the loop on it, which is also in an up-down orientation as opposed to the sideways positioning of the boards with Beddgelert station on.

As Himself alluded to, this board will eventually have two sections of track on it, at the top and the bottom, positioned as it is at the right hand end of the upper loop around Cwm Cloch Isaf farm.

Here's a reminder of the eventual layout plan to put that into context for you.

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About Me

Broadcaster, writer and railway modeller.
Best known for the 009 Festiniog Railway layout 'Dduallt' which I built with my father David in the early 1990's and which is still making appearances on the exhibition circuit.